Homes And Lives Rebuilt

Two Years After Andrew

Hurricane recovery has not just been a matter of putting up concrete, plywood and steel. South Florida has emerged from the rubble a different place.

Jack Timmerman and Henry Valdez lived across the street from each other, their futures joined by a common road. But two years ago, Hurricane Andrew destroyed their south Dade homes, splintered their lives and sent them in different directions.

"We thought it would be less depressing to start fresh than to rebuild there," Timmerman said, recalling the ruined piano and the shattered pots of orchids in the wreckage of the home he shared with Mary Ann Linden. "We decided the neighborhood was not going to be back in place for five to 10 years."

Their future was north. Timmerman and Linden sold their house, bought a new one in Pembroke Pines and joined the wave of hurricane refugees streaming to Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Valdez and his wife, Dora, wanted their future where their past had been. They stayed and rebuilt their house in an attractive subdivision southeast of Cutler Ridge.

Today, a few badly damaged houses sit empty on their street, insurance company names and claim numbers spray-painted on the walls. But most homes on the street look like the Valdez house - newly restored, with fresh paint and lush lawns.

"I would say within six months, this place will be back," Henry Valdez said. "And it will be even better."

Two years ago Wednesday, Hurricane Andrew ravaged South Florida, as well as the Bahamas and southern Louisiana, killing 65 people and causing $27 billion in damage.

The region has made substantial progress toward recovery since then. Dade County planners estimate that of the 48,000 homes destroyed by the hurricane, 36,000 had been replaced as of July.

But hurricane recovery has not just been a matter of putting up concrete, plywood and steel. South Florida has emerged from the rubble a different place - financially and spiritually stronger in some areas, weaker in others.

Two years later, these changes are evident:

-- Some communities are better positioned now than in 1992 to take advantage of economic growth. Just before Andrew, some south Dade communities, including Cutler Ridge, Naranja and Homestead, had begun to experience significant growth. The physical devastation and the energy devoted to recovering from Andrew choked it off. South Dade regained that momentum sooner than some experts expected.

"We're starting to see some real focused growth down there again," said Paul Lambert, an economist with the Real Estate Services Group of Arthur Andersen and Co. "It has turned into an area that is going to be stronger than it was before the storm."

-- On the other hand, some of south Dade's poorer neighborhoods have declined further. Hit hard by Andrew, they were hit a second time when moderate-income families took their insurance money and ran.

"In terms of stability, you have the highest-income residents leaving, and that's disruptive," Lambert said. "Now you have only the lowest-income families living in the area."

Some of those neighborhoods, in Florida City and Leisure City, have pockets of ruin untouched since the hurricane. Some wrecked properties have been abandoned. People live in others, sheltered by plastic tarps tacked to broken windows and thrown over collapsed roofs.

-- Some struggling neighborhoods have been bolstered by new residents and community rehabilitation programs. Low-income people who never expected to be homeowners bought the shells of ruined houses for as little as $7,000 in savings or federal aid. With their own sweat, plus volunteer labor and donated materials from groups like Centro Campesino's community repair program, they turned wrecks into modest, mortgage-free homes.

-- The population shifted. An estimated 20,000 people fled south Dade, some only as far as southwest Broward, while others left the state. The influx of hurricane victims boosted the economy in Broward and Palm Beach counties with insurance dollars, but they crowded stores, streets and schools unprepared for a sudden surge of growth. The huge SilverLakes development in Pembroke Pines sold two years' worth of homes in the year after Andrew. About half the buyers, like Timmerman and Linden, were from Dade, said Donald Neuerman, vice president of sales and marketing.

"Predominantly, it was people who had their entire neighborhoods devastated. They just didn't want to go back in there and be the only person on their block for a number of years," Neuerman said.